


Secrets, Secrets Are No Fun

by lolocee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-04-22
Packaged: 2021-02-24 17:21:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22261609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lolocee/pseuds/lolocee
Summary: When Luka witnesses Ladybug drop her transformation, leaving Marinette Dupain-Cheng in her place, it only confirms all of the things he already loved about her. And when Viperion is summoned once again, Chat isn't thrilled about Viperions open flirtations directed at Ladybug.Set post Viperion but pre s3 finale.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 23
Kudos: 278





	1. Of Course It Was Her.

Luka had loved Marinette Dupain-Cheng since the first moment he saw her. Sweet, fumbling, smart, bashful, Marinette. The only way Luka could think to channel these emotions- in a way that made sense to him was through his music. Finding the melody, the notes that matched her was an easy obsession to pickup when that girl and his music were the only two things so commonly present on his mind. Watching her pine after a boy who didn't seem to notice her, not in the way she wanted anyway, wasn't easy to endure but he persevered. Hoping that one day she would look at him with the same adoration he felt when he looked at her. He wondered if there was ever a way to change the game. To be important to her in a way Adrien Agreste wasn't. 

Then it happened on its own. 

Luka was pedaling his way back home after kicking it with a few of his buddies, his guitar in his bike basket. The cool Autumn air felt good in his hair. They had strummed their guitars and listened to a slew of records. It had been relaxing, they weren't even aware of the Akuma attack that had just plagued half the city. Or that the city's favorite superheroes had saved the city once again. That red suit though, it wasn't subtle. That's what caught his eye. Caused him to hit the brakes as he rode by on his bike. She landed cleanly in an alleyway, her back to him. Her yo-yo retracted back into itself and she secured it to her hip. Running into one of Paris's heroes exuded a feeling similar to seeing a celebrity in a Starbucks or jogging in the park. Ladybug had saved countless lives, including his own. Running into a solo Ladybug that wasn't surrounded with press or vaulting herself across the city with her yo-yo was the perfect chance to thank her for everything she had done. 

He fully intended to thank her, as soon as he got over his moment of being Starstruck. He really meant to alert her of his presence and then thank her. It didn't even occur to him that she was in this alleyway alone to drop her Ladybug guise. 

"Spots off." 

In a flash of pink light that temporarily blinded Luka, Ladybug's costume disappeared. He blinked the spots away. He would have gasped if it didn't make perfect sense. Instead, he grinned. Of course, it was her. Who else would it be, saving Paris day after day?

"Marinette?"


	2. I believe you

It wasn't an unordinary day for Ladybug. She slipped into her superhero guise to save the city once again from mass destruction. Bantered with her leather-clad superhero partner and once again turned down his obnoxious if not cute attempts at flirtation. For any ordinary person, it would have been an extraordinary day. Defeating evil, swinging across rooftops with only a yo-yo keeping them in the air. But for Ladybug it was all in a day's work. Today had presented an interesting akuma. The victim took the form of a dragon and turned people into knights to serve them and protect their "treasure". It was all pretty fairy tale to Ladybug but she wasn't exactly sure what had led to this specific akumatization or why it took such a storybook form. After winning the fight and her earrings began beeping, she fled the scene and found the perfect secluded spot, only a few blocks from the bakery, which was a plus. She had a pile of homework to tackle and her parents were probably worried. They always were after an akuma attack, afraid she could have gotten caught in the crossfire. If only they knew just how close to the action she was. 

It was a clean landing and a silent one. Something she had been working to perfect. With unwarranted confidence, she dropped her transformation, once again comfortable in her civilian clothes. Tikki drifted from the air into Marinettes open palm as Marinette fumbled to retrieve a macaroon from her purse. She didn't expect the voice behind her. 

"Marinette?"

She froze. The voice was familiar but the surprise gave her pause. It took a second to place it. It was melodic and warm. Luka. She was sure of it. As soon as his name whispered itself in her mind, she felt her cheeks flare red. Exchanging a look with Tikki before slowly turning, hiding the little kwami behind her back. 

"Luka!" She greeted him with forced enthusiasm. The question 'did you see?' repeating itself in her head like a mantra. Pursuing her lips she raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to say anything. 

"What are you up to?" His voice was smooth and grin almost seemed smug, or was she imagining that? Was he toying with her? Was she overthinking? What if- no. She was definitely overthinking. If he saw, wouldn't he say something? Shut up shut up shut up shut up. His question hung in the air but she only stared at him with that panicked smile. 

"Yeah..." She breathed out, she hadn't realized she had been holding her breath. "I mean- uh." She shook her head, trying to clear it. Her hand fiddled with one of her pony tails.

"Marinette..." Lukas smile softened. He had to put her out of her misery. "I'm not going to tell anyone." He stared at her with knowing eyes. 

"Tell anyone what?" As much as it sounded like it, it wasn't completely a desperate attempt at concealing her identity. If he had seen, then he had seen. But she needed him to say it, she had to be sure. Luka took a step forward, something Marinette did not expect. She felt her cheeks grow warmer in the proximity. He was towering over her. She tried to ignore the slew of flurrying emotions she couldn't even begin to sort through. The most prevalent was panic, although the causes varied. 

"I won't tell anyone that you're Ladybug." Lukas voice was low and as smooth as honey. 

Marinette had imagined her secret alter ego being revealed a dozens of times. Sometimes she imagined if Chat found out, or her long-time crush Adrien Agreste, or her best friend, Alya, who ran a fan blog unknowingly FOR her. It hadn't crossed her mind before that Luka Couffaine would be the one to find out. A sense of unexpected calm washed over her. She knew that as long as he could help it, he would keep his word. He would never try to hurt her. There probably wasn't anyone more equipped to handle her secret than him. He was level headed and more in touch with his emotions than most- despite the one incident it had gotten out of control and he had been akumatized. Somehow she felt confident that that wouldn't happen again. He was in control, moreso than even she was. She trusted him completely. She figured that if she ever revealed herself to someone then it would be on her own terms. Never by accident. Never to this cute boy who always had a spot in the very back of her mind. Nevertheless, a weight fell off Marinettes shoulders in that moment. She was no longer alone with this secret. 

"Thank you. I believe you." She said simply and genuinely because she meant it. She felt no fear or doubt. The same couldn't be said for the quaking kwami in Marinettes palm, hidden behind her back. Now she vaulted herself from Marinette's palm and darted through the air into view. 

"Marinette!" Tikki cried. "Your identity!" She protested. Marinette didn't tear her eyes away from Luka in order to answer the fuming kwami. 

"It's okay, I trust him." She said softly. Luka beamed. 

"We need to go. Now." Tikki crossed her tiny arms and tapped her foot despite the fact that she was floating in the air. After a moment Marinette nodded and finally turned to meet the glare of a frustrated Tikki. 

"Luka, this is my kwami Tikki." Marinette gestured between them, introducing them. Tikki's tiny mouth fell open. 

"Don't give him MORE information! Luka, I'm sorry but we have to leave RIGHT now!" Tikki shot to Marinette's shoulder and urged her forward. 

"Sorry, I have to go," Marinette confessed as she took a step back, Tikki leading her. 

"We'll talk later." Luka promised, earning another smile from Marinette. "Nice meeting you Tikki." He said with a wave. And with that, Marinette was jogging down the alley, towards home.


	3. No more slip ups

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's been some confusion so I added it to the overall description but wanted to just say it again here- this is set pre s3 finale but post Viperion. thnkuuu

Marinette beelined for her bed as soon as she entered her bedroom. Tikki buzzed around her, persistent as a bee. 

"Marinette!" She scolded. "We need to talk about this!" Marinette flopped facedown and mumbled into the covers. "What?" Tikki flew closer to hear. Marinette lazily flipped onto her back and raised her palm so that Tikki could rest on it. Tikki landed softly, arms crossed over her tiny chest. 

"Tikki, we have nothing to worry about. I trust Luka! He'll keep my secret." Marinette smiled softly. She finally had someone else to share her secret with. Someone who wasn't always so involved with the action like Tikki. Someone that would understand that she had a teen life to lead on the side of all of this saving the city and whatnot. 

"What if he gets akumatized again? Or circumstances change and he has to tell? Or what if just decides he wants to tell!?" Tikki's squeaking voice grew louder and louder. "It's not safe!!"

"Tikki, you're spiraling." Marinette's voice was calm and smooth, much like Luka's often was. She imagined the sound of him strumming his guitar at that moment and she closed her eyes with a soft smile. 

"Someone should be!" Tikki huffed. Marinette sighed and opened her eyes a slit to look at the grumpy kwami on her palm. She giggled. 

"Luka is the most level headed person I know!- aside from Adrien, of course. He slipped up once when he became the Silencer but I don't think that will ever happen again. He knows the consequences of losing it like that now. I'm not sure what circumstances would ever force Luka to tell my secret but I'm confident he would never give it up. He would never choose to tell."

"Marinette, you don't understand. With most Ladybugs, someone finding out their identity would mean giving up their miraculous. For good." At that, Marinette sat up, now cupping Tikki in both hands. 

"You're not going to take away my miraculous, are you Tikki? I won't have another slip up like today. Luka is the only person who will ever know my identity." Tikki studied Marinette for a moment, peering at the worry that creased between her brow. Being Ladybug had so quickly become her whole world. A world she loved being a part of. A world where she wasn't klutzy and nervous Marinette. Instead, she swung from rooftops, never feared sharing her ideas, and had become one of Paris's greatest saviors. All that confidence from being Ladybug had even started spilling over into her personal life and she found herself braver than ever before. She wasn't ready for it to be over. As hard as it was balancing being a teenager with being a superhero, it was a mess but it was her mess. She couldn't lose it. 

"I can't imagine who could make a better Ladybug than you, Marinette." Tikki surrendered, dropping her little arms to her sides. Marinette let out a deep breath and then hugged Tikki to her cheek. 

"I promise not to let you down, Tikki!" She cheered. 

"No more slip-ups!"

"No more slip-ups." 

At that moment the screams of Paris could be heard out the window. 

"But we just got back..." Marinette whined. 

"Duty calls." Tikki affirmed. Marinette crawled over her bed through the skylight onto the roof. Rushing towards the railing she peered over the horizon. The sun was dipping below the city's skyline, flushing the buildings and sky in warm orangey light and casting long stretching shadows. She could just barely make out the silhouette of a certain black cat she knew, as he gallivanted over the rooftops, already heading towards the action.

"Tikki, spots on!"


	4. My first kiss was really my dog!

Marinette bounded across the rooftops, for the first time in a while she reminded herself to thank whatever higher power for the chance to be Ladybug. Not everyone gets to feel the Paris wind ruffling their hair as they venture into a dangerous situation, sure that victory will be theirs just like always.  
Chat saw Ladybug soaring towards him and paused mid-leap, a smile already on his face.  
“My lady! What a purr-leasure to see you!” He landed on the next rooftop and continued running forwards, towards the sound of destruction and screams. She retracted her yo-yo and fell in step next to him.  
“Not sure if that pun really worked there, kitty.” She said hesitantly. Chat shrugged.  
“Yeah, didn’t exactly roll off the tongue.” He stuck his tongue out at her and she smiled, shaking her head.  
“Any idea what we’re up against?” She asked. They both lept from the roof, soaring high above the park surrounding the Eiffel Tower. Chat pulled out his baton and let it extend, hitting the ground below them as Ladybug threw her yo-yo out once again, it flung around a flagpost, secured. Chat pointed a finger at a floating purple figure cackling above a group of pedestrians below, all trying to clasp their hands over their mouths. Instead, they kept bursting with words over their hands. The purple figure on closer inspection was a girl wearing a long purple robe, red hair rising from her head like a flame. She sat on a stern black horse that seemed to gallop through the air. It seemed angry. In one hand she held a megaphone and shouted down at them, sending visible lasers that struck them square in the chests. When the lasers collided with some of the people she cackled maniacally.  
“Secrets, secrets, are no fun! Unless you tell everyone!/” She shouted.  
“My best guess would be that guy.” Chat said quite obviously, still pointing at the purple figure. She swung to one side of the park and he lowered himself to the ground and began running forward. As he closed the distance between himself and the inflicted citizens he could see their eyes had turned purple and they were all trying not to speak. But the words seemed to bubble up inside of them and they began shouting out secrets.  
“My first kiss was really my dog!”  
“I didn’t really forget my homework at home! I just didn’t do it!”  
“I’m not really allergic to gluten! I don’t even know what gluten is!”  
Some of them ran off, a few in tears. Others stayed, hands tight over their mouths, struggling in the grass as if they were wrestling with themselves.  
“The Akuma is probably in the microphone!” Ladybug yelled from the air.  
“Looks like someone has their thinking cat on!” Chat volleyed back. Ladybug rolled her eyes and swung towards the woman on the horse. The horse lept to the right and Ladybug swung narrowly missing her. A hand reaching out towards the megaphone.  
“I am the Truth Seeker!” She declared, raising her megaphone to her lips. With wide eyes Ladybug gave a stiff tug to her yo-yo whipping herself out of aim. She landed swiftly in the grass next to Chat noir, a scowl on his face.  
“You all right, Bugaboo?” He asked, peering at her over his shoulder before looking back at their target, keeping on eye on her as her horse galloped through the sky.  
“Don’t call me that! We have to be extra careful not to get hit with this akumas power, Chat. No jumping in to save me, alright?”  
“What’s so bad about this akuma? Seems kind of harmless to me.” Chat gazed at the people on the ground spewing their secrets. Running off, hands tight over their mouths.  
“She makes people tell their secrets? Got anything you’d like to keep to yourself?” Ladybug chided him.  
“I don’t have any secrets.” Chat shrugged. Ladybug stared at him, waiting for it to hit him.  
“Chat… you have a secret identity.” He stared blankly at her for a moment.  
“Shit.”  
“Exactly.”  
“If a normal civilian gets hit then they confess about skipping their homework but if we get hit…”  
“Exactly.”  
“Maybe we shouldn’t try this one on our own... we don’t want something to happen that we can’t take back.” Chat suggested.  
“I think you’re right, Chaton. But who should we get to help us?”  
“If we get hit on our own we can’t have a second chance. Unfortunately, I don’t really have nine lives. But what if we could have a second chance?” Chat offered.  
“Oh… you mean…” Ladybug continued hesitantly.  
“We need Viperion!”


	5. Sorry, Ladybug.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've been AWOL, the world kind of ended. Lots of free time now though. More to come.

Delivering the Miraculous to Luka felt somehow- awkward. Marinette hadn't talked to anyone as Ladybug who knew her real identity before. It seemed to poke too many holes in her whole Ladybug persona. The second mask she wears, the one that doesn't stutter or stumble or question herself. The part of her that divided her from her real self. Talking to someone, trying to present herself as such when she knew they knew what she looked like rushing into school late and rolling out of bed at one of Juleka's sleepovers- was challenging.  
She dropped in front of him and even though that was the plan. Ladybug seemed to jolt the same way Luka did when she hit the ground. She wasn't surprised to see him- but that was how it felt. She could feel her cheeks warm being in his proximity. She barely got the words out, instead just pushing the Miraculous box into his hands. 

"Isn't it dangerous though, now that I know your real identity?" He asked, staring at her wide-eyed. He hadn't thought he would get the chance to bound over rooftops, playing superhero again. He thought he had traded that for knowing who Marinette really was. He wasn't upset over this trade. 

"It is. But we'll need to make an exception just this once. This Akuma makes people blab their biggest secrets. Obviously for Chat Noir and I, those would be our identities. If we announce that to Paris then that will be the end of Chat Noir and Ladybug as we know it. If we get hit and tell our secrets, we'll need your redo with time. You're the only one I trust with the snake Miraculous. Please do right by us, Luka." Marinette shifted a bit more comfortably back into her Ladybug persona, finding the right footing. Still following her speech with an awkward swallow and laugh, breaking eye contact. Luka took hold of her hand. 

"Of course I will." He promised. 

The fight was fairly simple. Of course, Marinette would only remember the version they won. Luka would later admit that it took 27 tries before they got it right. It came down to the tiniest details, the shifting of weight from one foot to the other, ducking a second sooner, it was what one would call flawlessly executed. That is until the last moment. In one swift movement Ladybug flung her lucky charm, a wad of bubblegum that plugged the end of the megaphone, but not before one last laser hit Ladybug in the shoulder. The megaphone dropped out of the akumatized's hands and shattered on the concrete. 

Chat appeared at Ladybug's side, helping her up. 

"Are you alright?" He looked with a furrowed brow where she held her shoulder. Exactly where the laser hit. Ladybug met his eyes and opened her mouth to speak. Her irises flickered from their usual blue to a deep purple. Ladybug flung her hands to her face, struggling to keep her mouth shut, looking wildly around for anything to stop her from spewing her secrets. 

"Ladybug! The Akuma!" Viperion shouted from where the megaphone had landed. A dark butterfly wafted from it's cracked surface, fleeing towards the sky. Ladybug grabbed her yo-yo and flung it towards the butterfly, capturing it instantly. She dropped her hand, ready for her usual chant. 

"I'm in love with Adrien Agreste!" She choked out. Chat froze. Ladybugs hand flung to her mouth but that was the only secret fighting to get out. Ladybug looked between the other two superheroes mortified. She could feel her cheeks flush under the mask. "Bye, bye little butterfly." She croaked and released the butterfly white into the sky. "Any chance we can do this one more time?" She asked Viperion.

"Did you just blurt out your identity?" Viperion asked, walking closer. 

"No, not exactly." She hedged.

"We defeated the villain and kept your identities safe, I think another redo might be abusing the power. Sorry, Ladybug." He reasoned. Ladybug nodded slowly.

"Right... right... that makes sense." She sneaked a peek at Chat who hadn't moved an inch. Her heart ached. Chat's feelings for her were no secret and it didn't feel good to hurt him. "The model. I'm just a really big fan. That's what I meant." She tried but the statement felt hollow and didn't change the look on Chat's face. Their miraculous suddenly beeped in sync, breaking the tension. "Chat, go comfort the victim. I've got to get Viperion's miraculous." Ladybug instructed before taking off in the direction of somewhere more secluded. Chat watched her go then clumsily turned to the Akuma victim, sitting on the sidewalk in a haze.


End file.
